Assessor Isn’t Doing His Job

Once again Orange County Assessor Brad Jacobs is not playing with a full deck (May 1). In this case he has removed all the aces from the deck. And for property owners who deserve a reduction, he’s dealing from the bottom of the deck.

The assessor has the responsibility to fairly value real estate and other property in the county. A huge number of property owners are not getting a fair assessment and are forced to appeal to the assessment appeals board--so many, in fact, that there is a 15-month backlog of cases.

Your article clearly illustrates why Orange County desperately needs a leadership change in the assessor’s office. It seems unconscionable that the assessor did not tap the $21 million available last year and the funds available this year to help these taxpayers out.

His excuses for turning down this money are absurd. To take advantage of this grant and ultimately not have to pay it back, all the assessor has to do is the job he was elected to do in the first place.

I hope his childish and irresponsible past tactics of refusing to show up at appeals hearings won’t be repeated this year. Orange County could be faced with millions in lost revenue. Have we learned nothing from the Citron debacle?

Jacobs is obviously stuck in the arrogant, stubborn and muddled thinking of the old regime of Orange County mismanagement. Thumbing his nose and refusing to work with the new Board of Supervisors and its chief executive officer is just another Citron-like disaster in the making.

JEFF SCOTT REID

Lake Forest